Warmen, The Evil That Warmen Do, 2010

Sometimes it is really easy to start exploring a band when they release a Best Of. In case you like that album, you already know there is a back catalogue with at least some good songs on them. But yes, a Best Of can also be limited to the more commercial tunes. And in my experience those are not necessarily the… ahem, best. Still for me this approach has worked perfectly on a number of occasions.

But before I get ahead of myself, what´s up with this Warmen disk? Fun title, the guy (the band is a project led by keyboard player Janne Warman) knows his Iron Maiden. Style wise this is ranging from neo classical shredding (and as mr. Warman is an ivory tickler, this isn´t limited to guitar), to power metal, to melodic metal, a little fusion and then back again. Sometimes a bit more extreme (no wonder with Children of Bodom mates joining in sometimes), but mostly melodic. As this is a project, songs have different singers. Besides Alexi Laiho you can run into Timo Kotipelto, Kimberly Goss and some others here. Faultless playing, really good songs, a lot of variation, again a nice discovery and a band to delve into.

A little weird are the numerous covers on offer, 3 out of 13 songs. And not the most obvious choices either. What to think of the Somebody´s Watching Me (Rockwell) version with a Laiho presentation… I like the originals better though, gives the album more identity.